TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh on late Friday rushed to the ACB Special Court to meet the arrested party MLA Atchannaidu. However, the police stopped Lokesh from meeting Atchannaidu saying he cannot be allowed without the permission from the court. At around 11. 30 pm, Atchannaidu was taken to the ACB Special Court to appear before the judge via video-conference. When Lokesh insisted that he be allowed to meet the arrested TDP leader, the police barred him from doing so. Lokesh was accompained by TDP ministers.
Atchannaidu, who was arrested by the ACB in an early morning swoop at his residence in Tekkali, reached Vijayawada at around 8.30 pm. He was taken in a car by road. After a gruelling 10 hours drive from Srikakulam to Vijayawada, Atchannaidu was taken to ESI Hospital at around 9 pm for medical examinations. Dr Hima Bindu had conducted certain medical tests for more than one hour. Atchannaidu recently had a minor surgery and according to his family members he was not allowed to even take the medicines. After medical examinations, the TDP leader was taken to a judge’s residence at Mangalagiri where the police has been beefed up. There was a lot of confusion as to where Atchannaidu was being taken. After nearly 16 hours, at around 11.30 pm Atchannaidu was produced before the CBI Special Court judge. It is learnt that the judge will hear the case a video-conference.
The TDP leaders who gathered out the ACB Special Court had alleged that state police wasa trying to frame its MLA allegedly in a false case in order to stop him from attending the Assembly session scheduled to be held from June 16.
Earlier at 7.30 pm on Friday, hundreds of cops surrouned the TDP leader’s house. ACB DSP(CIU) TSRK Prasad along with a team of Anti-corruption Bureau and a posse of more than 100 police personnel arrested the TDP leader from his residence in Nimmada village of Kotabommali Mandal in Srikakulam district. Some cops even scaled the walls of Atchannaidu as if they were arresting a terrorist who would flee. The senior TDP leader was arrested without following the procedures such as serving notices to the former minister. Further, the TDP leader was barred from talking to his family members after the authorities cut the network connections.
The ACB had arrested the TDP leader in the alleged ESI scam worth Rs 404.86 crore. The ACB had accused Atchannaidu of involvement in the alleged scam even as the TDP leader’s name does not figure in the Vigilance and Enforcement Department report. In the report, Vigilance and Enforcement Department had named three directors of IMS for lapses in purchase of drugs, medicines, medical kits and furniture.
TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the Jagan government was misusing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for ulterior motives. He accused Jagan of deliberately implicating a sitting MLA in order to prevent him from participating in the Assembly proceedings that are scheduled from June 16. Further, he termed the arrest as ‘police kidnapping’. Further, the former CM demanded that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Home Minister Mekatoti Sucharita and DGP Gautam Sawang explain the real motive behind his arrest.
